NEWS RELEASE                                                                                             18 February 2002

CITY OF CAPE TOWN TO ASSESS ITS DIGITAL DIVIDE

The City of Cape Town has commissioned a groundbreaking, national “first” digital divide assessment’ study to gauge Capetonians’ e-readiness and access to information communications technology (ICT) ranging from telephones to the Internet -- to find out how people use it, whether they need it, what they think of it and what challenges and opportunities they see for its use.

Conducting the assessment is an important first step in bridging the City’s digital divide, which refers to the fact that some people have real access to these new technologies and benefit hugely from it while others, who don’t have access, are increasingly falling behind.

The findings will help the City of Cape Town to harness existing technology more effectively so as to improve social services and boost the local economy. In addition, it will help to identify constraints and possible shortcomings in service delivery as far as access to ICT is concerned. The City will also use the results of the assessment to support the implementation of the Economic Development and Smart City strategies, and shape on-the-ground projects that will give business and citizens more access to computer technology. The study will also be an important input to other initiatives, for example, the Provincial Cape on Line project.

The assessment will not only use traditional measures for gauging the digital divide, but will go further by looking at the range of factors that impact on real access such as affordability, local capacity, relevant content and services and socio-cultural factors. Many of these factors have been ignored by assessments done elsewhere in the world with the result that they failed to record the bigger picture relating to ICT usage and needs.

The City will also include a broad range of stakeholders, such as business and community forums and NGOs, plus key ICT and Provincial Government stakeholders in the process - both at the information gathering stage and when preparing proposed action plans to tackle the digital divide.

Councillor Kent Morkel, Executive Councillor for Economic Development and Tourism said about the project: "Usually national governments commission e-readiness assessments, but internationally cities are playing a more active role in integrating ICT in local government structures, the economy and society since they ultimately have to provide services to the community".

“These days cities are expected to earn their keep and do more than make sure that the traffic lights are working. National governments make decisions and policy on ICT, but it is local governments that have to put plans into action - this is where the rubber hits the road,” said TeresaPeters, Executive Director of bridges.org, an international NGO based in Cape Town that has been contracted to do the assessment.

Peters was heartened by the fact that the City was not just blindly trying to address the digital divide, but that it was first determining the current situation before it spent precious and scarse resources on programmes. She said an e-readiness assessment of Cape Town could be a vital tool for judging the impact of ICT, to replace often used wild claims and anecdotal evidence about the role of ICT in development with concrete data for comparison.

The Councils vision for the City of Cape Town has recognised ICT as an important enabler for improving the City’s global competitiveness, providing a business friendly environment, ensuring economic opportunity for all and for improved customer service.

The assessment is being undertaken by bridges.org, an international NGO based in Cape Town which has extensive experience in 'e-readiness’ surveys, and DGE, a Cape Town IT training company, in conjunction with officials from the City of Cape Town. The expected date of completion is May 2002.

If you or your organisation are interested in being part of the study, please contact the Project Co-ordinator, Steve Wendel on Tel (021) 970 1302 or email: steve@bridges.org

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